The evolution of rural policy: The Antipodean experience

In common with other countries in the developed world, Australia and New Zealand developed an array of institutions and programs from the 1950s to the 1970s to support their agricultural sectors. From the mid-1980s they dismantled these, very rapidly in the case of New Zealand, to leave farmers and rural regions largely to market forces. This article explores the transition in Australia and New Zealand from agricultural policy based on ‘protected development’ to broader rural policy which includes consideration of regional development and environmentalism. We argue that the ideas and values of market liberalism are more apparent in rural policy in Australia and New Zealand than in the EU and US and we propose reasons for that, including differences in economic context, cultural ideas and political institutions.